CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Filip Lindberg's road to recovery was a long one, with a couple of bumps along the way.
Lindberg, the Penguins' 23-year-old goaltending prospect, suffered an ankle injury in a game with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in November. The injury proved to be season-ending, and Lindberg still wasn't quite 100% at the Penguins' development camp in July, forcing him to participate in a limited capacity.
Lindberg has been back in Cranberry for a little while now, taking part in some informal skates with other Penguins' prospects in the days leading up to rookie camp. When rookie camp opened with Thursday's practice session at the Lemieux Complex, Lindberg was a full participant.
"He's full go," Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach J.D. Forrest said of Lindberg's status after Day 1. "I think he's really excited, he's been chomping at the bit for a while now. It was a tough, tough stretch for him trying to deal with an injury as a guy that hasn't had to deal with anything like that before. So I know he's really hungry. He just wants to get going at this point, he wants to get into the net. We're excited about him."
I spoke one-on-one with Lindberg after he got off the ice, and he didn't want to comment on the exact nature of his ankle injury, but he said that his "ankle is working like like it should, it felt great to be out there."
The recovery process wasn't a clear path.
It's hard to say what exactly caused Lindberg's injury. It happened sometime in his seventh start of the season, a game against the Charlotte Checkers on Nov. 12 in Wilkes-Barre. He played the first full two periods of the game and looked strong, stopping 27 of the 28 shots thrown his way. Nothing happened in the second period that would have been an obvious cause of a potential injury, like a collision. But when the Penguins came back onto the ice for the start of the third period, it was backup goaltender Tommy Nappier who led the Penguins onto the ice. Lindberg wasn't anywhere to be seen.
I asked Forrest for updates on Lindberg's status in the following days, and it was clear that the team wasn't quite sure of the nature of Lindberg's injury, just that it's "not a day-to-day situation."
"We still have to figure out exactly what it is he's dealing with," Forrest told me at the time. "We know it's low body, we just don't know the severity and the precise location of the area."
After some appointments with different doctors, Lindberg and the Penguins first started to rehab his ankle injury without surgery. He did start to make progress, and was skating in the weeks leading up to the team's Christmas break, telling his teammates that he felt good on the ice.
Though the rehab route had made some progress, it became evident that it wouldn't get Lindberg's ankle back to 100%. He underwent surgery in February, officially ending his rookie season.
"I just had some difficulties with the ankle and it wasn't working the way it should have," Lindberg explained. "I had to undergo surgery. But it's working now, that's what's most important."
Lindberg's rookie season being cut so short was all the more disappointing knowing how strongly he started his professional career. He had four starts in the first month of the season, posting a perfect 4-0 record, a 1.71 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage, a run that earned him the award of AHL goaltender of the month for the month of October. In listening to the coaching staff talk about their impressions of Lindberg at the time, it was Lindberg's confidence and drive that were often pointed to as his best attributes.
"The first thing that strikes me with him is his competitiveness," goaltending development coach Kain Tisi said in October. "He can be in any situation, whether it's his first NHL exhibition in Pittsburgh, his exhibition game here with us and then his first pro debut in the regular season. He's confident, he's calm, he's got swagger, and to me, he just breathes confidence throughout our whole lineup and our coaching staff for sure."
Lindberg was on track for a successful rookie season. Had he stayed healthy, he could have had a real shot at been the one eating spicy pork and broccoli in New York in May.
"It's not ideal," Lindberg said of dealing with the injury. "It's tough mentally and physically. But I guess it's part of sports sometimes. Stuff like that happens and you can't really do anything about it. You just have to work your way back into the game."
Lindberg remained in Wilkes-Barre until the end of the season. He wasn't able to skate until the summer, so the rest of the season was spent doing whatever off-ice rehab and workouts he was able to do. Getting to spend that time in Wilkes-Barre with his teammates eased the sting of his rookie season being cut so short.
"It worked out really well," he said. "It was also important for me, because mentally it was more easier being at the rink with your teammates and supporting your team. You know, they supported me too. So, it went well."
Lindberg said that he still sort of feels like a rookie entering this season, given his limited playing time last season. Though his stint in the AHL last season was brief, it was enough that he feels like he understands the differences between the college game and the pro game, and feels like he was able to make the necessary adjustments to his game to find success.
"I think the first month started out well for me," he said. "Obviously, it's a new league. It's different from college, better players. Just a tougher game, I'd say. Guys are more skillful, they shoot better. You know, it's a more dangerous game, even from a goalie perspective. A shot from the blue line, could be tipped in. There's more bodies in front of the net. So it's just different. I think I got accustomed to it pretty quickly."
Lindberg showed last season that he has the ability to be successful at the pro level. Now, as he gets a second try at his first full pro season, he's looking to pick up where he left off last November. If he's able to return to the form he had before the ankle injury cut his season short, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that he could see some time in Pittsburgh later in the year.
MORE FROM ROOKIE CAMP
• Owen Pickering, the Penguins' 2022 first-round pick, isn't participating in the on-ice camp sessions as he deals with an upper-body injury.
"We thought it was important for him to come here anyway and be a part of this, familiarize himself with the staff, get to know the guys even better than he did at development camp," Forrest said of Pickering.
• Nolan Collins, the Penguins' 2022 sixth-round pick, is attending camp but participating in the on-ice sessions in a non-contact jersey. He's also dealing with an upper-body injury. Forrest said Collins is "day-to-day," and "closer to being an option" than Pickering is.
• The Penguins used these lines and pairings:
Filip Hallander - Sam Poulin - Valtteri Puustinen
Nathan Legare - Sam Houde - Lukas Svejkovsky
Raivis Ansons - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson
Ty Glover - Jordan Frasca - Brooklyn Kalmikov/Corey Andonovski
Colin Swoyer - Ryan McCleary
Chris Ortiz-Jack St. Ivany
Isaac Belliveau - Josh Maniscalco
Clay Hanus - Nolan Collins
• It's notable that Poulin's still working as a center. He played both wing and center in junior, and started out last season as a wing. His move to center coincided with the turnaround of his season, and he finished the year strong as a center.
"He had more success with us at the center position," Forrest said of Poulin. "You know, he's got the ability to do both, but with us, that's where we needed him to play. That's where he flourished. That's where he touched the puck the most. That's where he gets dialed in right off of face offs, he started to get really good on draws. By the end of the year, we're putting him in big situations on faceoffs to win for us."
• There seemed like an exceptional level of physicality for a Day 1 of a rookie camp. From the first drill, players didn't seem to be holding back from dishing out some hard hits. There are some players here with the ability to have a physical dimension to their game -- Hallander, Poulin, Legare, Gruden, Olson, Glover, Andonovski stand out in that regard to varying degrees -- and they were looking to showcase that today.
